For the purposes of
this article, the following words and phrases shall have the following
meanings:

(a)Building.Any structure, whether public or private, that is adapted for occupancy
as a residence, the transaction of business, the rendering of professional
services, amusement, the display, sale or storage of goods, wares or
merchandise or the performance of work or labor, including office buildings,
public buildings, stores, theaters, markets, restaurants, workshops and all
other houses, sheds and other structures on the premises used for business
purposes.

(b)Occupant.The person that has the use of, controls or occupies any business
building or any portion thereof, whether owner or tenant.In the case of vacant business buildings or
any vacant portion of a business building, the owner, agent or other person
having custody of the building shall have the responsibilities of an occupant
of a building.

(c)Owner.The owner of any building or structure, whether individual, firm,
partnership or corporation.

(d)Rat harborage.Any condition which provides shelter or
protection for rats, thus favoring their multiplication and continued existence
in, under or outside a structure of any kind.

(e)Rat-stoppage.A form of rat-proofing to prevent the ingress of rats into buildings
from the exterior or from one building to another, consisting essentially of
the closing of all openings in the exterior walls, ground or first floors,
basements, roofs and foundations, that may be reached by rats from the ground
by climbing or by burrowing, with material or equipment impervious to
rat-gnawing.

Upon receipt of
written notice from the governing body, the owner of any building or structure
specified therein shall take immediate measures for the rat-stoppage of such
building or structure.The work shall be
completed in the time specified in the written notice, which shall be within 15
days, or within the time of any written extension thereof that may have been
granted by the governing body.

If the owner fails to
comply with such written notice or extension, then the governing body is
authorized to take such action as may be necessary to completely rat-stop the
building or structure at the expense of the owner, and the city clerk shall
submit bills for the expense thereof to the owner of the building or
structure.If the bills are not paid
within 60 days, the city clerk shall certify the amount due to the city
treasurer and the charge shall be a lien against the property where the work
has been done, and the owner shall be promptly billed therefor.The expense thereof shall include the cost of
labor, materials, equipment and any other actual expense necessary for
rat-stoppage.

It shall be unlawful
for any occupant, owner, contractor, public utility company, plumber or any
other person to remove the rat-stoppage from any building or structure for any
purpose and fail to restore the same in a satisfactory condition or to make any
new openings that are not closed or sealed against the entrance of rats.

Whenever the governing
body notifies in writing the owner of any building or structure theretofore
rat-stopped as hereinabove defined, that there is evidence of rat infestation
of the building or structure, the owner shall immediately institute appropriate
measures for freeing the premises so occupied of all rats.Unless suitable measures for freeing the
building or structure of rats are instituted within five days after the receipt
of notice, and unless continually maintained in a satisfactory manner, the city
is hereby authorized to free the building or structure of rats at the expense
of the owner thereof and the city clerk shall submit bills for the expense
thereof to the owner of the building or structure and if the same are not paid,
the city clerk shall certify the amount due from the owner to the city
treasurer, and the owner shall be promptly billed therefor.The expense thereof shall include the cost of
labor, materials, equipment and any other actual expense necessary for the
eradication measures.

(a)All food and feed kept within the city for
feeding animals shall be kept and stored in rat-free and rat-proof containers,
compartments, or rooms unless kept in a rat-stopped building.

(b)It shall be unlawful for any person to place,
leave, dump or permit to accumulate any garbage or trash in any building or
premises so that the same shall afford food and harborage for rats.

(c)It shall be unlawful for any person to
accumulate or to permit the accumulation on any premises or on any open lot any
lumber, boxes, barrels, bricks, stone or similar materials that may be
permitted to remain thereon and which are rat harborages, unless the same shall
be placed on open racks that are elevated not less than 12 inches above the
ground, evenly piled or stacked.

(d)Whenever conditions inside or under any
building or structure provide such extensive harborage for rats that the health
department deems it necessary to eliminate such harborage, he or she may
require the owner to install suitable cement floors in basements or to replace
wooden first or ground floors or require the owner to correct such other
interior rat harborage as may be necessary in order to facilitate the
eradication of rats in a reasonable time and thereby to reduce the cost of such
eradication.

The building inspector
is empowered to make such inspections and re-inspections of the interior and
exterior of any building or structure as in his or her opinion may be necessary
to determine full compliance with this article.